Topic: Silverfast Ai

[Late Developer]

A while back, I bought an Epson V750 to scan my negatives. My intention was to shoot more film. Achieving this objective took longer than expected and, in the intervening period, I "upgraded" my PC from XP to Vista x64.

The V750 was supplied with a variety of goodies including Silverfast Ai. As I had only just bought the scanner and wanted to get to grips with the rudiments of Epson Scan, I didn't load the Silverfast Ai software - until now. Guess what? Incompatible with Vista x64. I wouldn't mind but I've just seen a website that shows the improvements available over the basic Epson Scan software.

I've written a rather plaintive e-mail to Silverfast to see if they'll either send me a new disk or a "key" that will allow me to download the latest version. I'd even pay an upgrade fee if necessary as buying the software is around £200.

Has anyone else had this problem? How did you resolve it?

[Greys on Grey]

almost the same story. bought a 750 pro and installed on XP. Then upgraded to win7 64bit.  I went to the silverfast site and registered to gain access to the download site. entered my old serial number and downloaded the new version.

[Late Developer]

I've tried that route. As I don't have (can't find) my serial number, I have nothing to enter where the site prompts me. I'm just hoping they'll accept return of my old disc and manuals as proof that I have software in the first place.

[LT]

Vuescan from www.hamrick.com

I think it is miles ahead of silverfast and I think it's cheaper too.

[Photo_Utopia]

I would echo the suggestion of Vuescan, I use it with both my scanners (its strength is it supports quite a few).
Is the Epson scan software that bad? I find I can get a pretty good scan if I set the black point and white point of course colour profiles are what makes Silverfast and Vuescan worth the money-if you need that accuracy in your workflow.

Give Vuescan a try its a free download (although watermarked) see if it gives better scans than the standard software, if not save your cash.
Mark

[Pete_R]

Another vote for Vuescan. I tried the Epson software and Silverfast and never got a scan out of it anywhere near as good as Vuescan. I use it with an Epson 4990 for med. format and a Nikon 4000ED for 35mm.

[Late Developer]

Hi Leon / Mark.

Thanks for the heads up on Vue Scan.

To be fair, the Epson software is okay but it's very flat and soft and takes some work to get the contrast and "punch" I'm after. Mind you, I do like low contrast as well. Anyway, I've just downloaded the Vue Scan trial and I'll see how it goes.

Best wishes, Paul.

[DS]

+1 for the vuescan recommendation- i quite often have to scan aerial films for work and found it to be way, way ahead of silverfast (came with my scanner). The main advantages are:
 

• cost- way cheaper
• compatibility- I take my laptop to work, it will work with the client's scanner
• less flaky (fewer crashes)

As Mark says, try the demo and see

[Late Developer]

Thanks all.....I'm having a play with VueScan as I type this. However, I'm having the sh*t Sunday from hell in almost every respect.....

All I seem to be able to do is scan the underside of the negative carrier - rather than the individual negatives. Can someone.....anyone......please just send me a list of the things that should be in the various boxes in the "Options Panel" under Input / Crop / Filter / Output / Prefs + any other tips that will allow me to get this sodding thing working.

Sorry to sound frantic but I don't like technology at the best of times and I'm seriously considering putting an axe through the top of the V750 and / or PC just to inflict some "pain" on them for a change.

Help. Please.

[DS]

LD- I have those days every day at the mo.

Click more

Make sure your scanner is selected in the 'input' box

Make sure 'media' is set to the right film

[Photo_Utopia]

Late Developer have you selected your source as 'Transparency' rather than flatbed?
Like this:


Those settings should at least give you an image.
Mark Antony

[Late Developer]

Hi Mark,

I've done what you and DS suggest and I'm no longer getting a scan of the bottom of the negative carrier but I am still only getting the whole load of negatives in one go - not the choice of however many individual negatives I want. I don't think my options are identical to yours, Mark, as I think you're using Mac whereas I'm using PC.

Am I missing something here? When then "preview" scan is complete, I still have "strips" of scanned and converted negative in the outline of the negative holder.

Shouldn't using VueScan "break" the negs into individuals photos that you can select individually to apply the settings - such as Digital Ice or contrast, hue and all that before actually scanning the individual negative? I can use a marquee tool to crop an individual photo from the strip - but it's a very imprecise tool and the colours are all over the place.

Franlky, this is driving me absolutely mental and I'm seriously wondering if it's worth the effort.

[Pete_R]

AFAIK Vuescan doesn't automatically find the individual negs and select them for you. I think there is an option to select multiple areas but I don't use it. I set a marquee to the size of the neg then move it around to each neg I want to scan. You only need to set the size once and, if you save your setup then it'll always be set to the right size for your negs. Setting the marquee can be very precise, just zoom in to do it.

Once you've got it set up, it's very quick. It's not automatic maybe, but that's a plus in my book.

[original_ann]

Paul,

There must be a serial number for the Silverfast Ai you have installed.  I can't recall but I think that from the prescan window there is a lower case "i" that stands for info.  Click that and you'll get a splash screen and then click Credits.  (Your serial number will display). 

[Photo_Utopia]

LD Peter is correct, you just place a marquee around your image. You should see the 'color' tab this should give you options to apply your film vendor type ie Kodak/Fuji and you actual film Type Portra NC etc.
These canned profiles are quite good but can be further tweeked with the sliders above curve high and low set your black and white points.

If it is all a little complicated then possibly this level of control just isn't your thing, I think there is an auto 'guide me' setting as well but that would negate the reasons for using something like Vuescan.

There is a guide here http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/html/vuesc8.htm

Good luck.
Regards
Mark

[Late Developer]

@ Ann - the issue is Ann, that I never installed Silverfast Ai - I just used the Epson Scan until now. This means that, as I don't have the serial number and the software has never been installed on my machine, I'm scuppered if they won't provide me with a new disk or a key to download the latest version.

@ Peter (et al) I finally found that once I'd selected "transparency" and gone onto the "Crop" tab and selected crop size 6x6 and "multi-crop" MF, it's providing me with automatic (but customisable) marquees that allow me to scan negs how I want.

Thank Wodin for that, I thought I was going to have a complete sense of humour failure over the whole thing and go back to digital....

Just to prove I've managed to do it, here's a couple I prepared earlier. I've applied a slightly pink-ish mono preset to them in Lightroom 2. The watermark will have to go, so I'll have to buy the software....

Thanks to everyone who helped and contributed to me keeping what's left of my sanity. Great support network...